Fishing boats and other vessels are often equipped with a trolling motor for providing a relatively small amount of thrust to slowly and quietly propel the boat or vessel. They advantageously provide for a finer adjustment of watercraft position than a main motor/propeller combination. One example of a contemporary trolling motor system may be found at U.S. Pat. No. 7,722,417 to Bernloehr et al. titled Trolling Motor Mount with Mono Main Arm, the entire teachings and disclosure of which are incorporated by reference herein.
As is readily understood in the art, such trolling motors incorporate a shaft with a propulsion unit at one end thereof. In a deployed position, the shaft is partially submerged in the water to situate the propulsion unit at a desired depth to provide thrust. To place the trolling motor in a stowed position, the shaft is pulled upwardly out of the water, and then rotated about a pivot point to secure it such that it is generally parallel relative to the surface of the water. While there are some designs which include an automated stow-deploy mechanism, many contemporary trolling motors are manually placed from the stowed position to the deployed position and vice versa.
In recent years, there has been a growing design trend in using larger motors in the propulsion unit to drive a propeller thereof. Such larger motors advantageously allow for a larger spectrum of applications of the trolling motor. In some cases, an ordinarily required outboard motor may be omitted entirely if the sizing of the motor on the trolling motor is sufficient enough to provide the required thrust. In other words, the larger more powerful motor of the trolling motor allows one to utilize only that device for propulsion of their watercraft, as opposed to a main outboard unit and a trolling motor.
Unfortunately, as a result of such larger motors, the overall weight of the trolling motor has significantly increased. This increase in weight has led to user difficulty in manually transitioning the trolling motor from the deployed position back to the stowed position. Indeed, the increased weight of the propulsion unit makes it difficult for a user to pull upwardly on the shaft to draw the shaft and the propulsion unit out of the water as there is a significant increase in the pulling force required. Such a weight increase is particularly problematic for younger or elderly users, as well as for those users which may have a persistent back injury limiting the amount of weight they can lift upwardly.
As such, there is a need in the art for a trolling motor system which, despite having a relatively large propulsion unit, may still be readily lifted out of the water to stow the same. There is also a need in the art for a lift assist device which may be retrofit onto an existing trolling motor with a relatively large propulsion unit so that it too may be readily lifted out of the water.
The invention provides such a system and device. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.